Cougars' 'Rock' proudly shoulders nickname

Cougars designated hitter Rock Shoulders kept fans at Thursday's season opener talking with a two-run home run in the fourth inning against Quad Cities.

Many in the crowd surely had been murmuring already once they heard Shoulders' name during pregame introductions.

Shoulders, whose given first name is Roderick, has been answering to his stonier moniker since he was 6.

"I got it from one of my friends' moms," he said. "She couldn't really say my name, so she just dropped a few letters out of the middle of it and combined the end, too."

The winner of last season's MiLB.com Moniker Madness tournament, Shoulders keeps up appearances as a 6-foot-2, 225-pound stalwart. He's sure people make the connection between his name and size, but he doesn't hear about it as often as you might think.

"I get that sometimes," Shoulders said, "but more people are like 'Rock' [as in], 'You rock hard."